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I Have Many Names

Her name was McGill
And she called herself "Lil",
But everyone knew her as "Nancy".

- The Beatles, Rocky Racoon

Basic Information

Rather than having one single simple name, this character has several, possibly dozens, maybe even hundreds of names, titles, epithets, etc. So many that it's hard to keep track of them all.

Related Tropes:
No Name Given
Overly Long Name

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use

• Very common trait among scary mythological characters, because of fear they'll hear you speaking their real name. See also The Fair Folk.
  • In the case of someone like Nyarlathotep or the gods of the Dodekatheon, each name might be a distinct avatar.
    • Good ol' "Gnarly Hotep" brings up a very good point. When your real name is The Unpronounceable, it's only natural you're going to end up nicknames.
  • Summoning or binding a supernatural creature might require an invocation using all (or many) of it's names. Or just the one true name.
• A plethora of names might also be the mythic equivalent of accreditation. They didn't have PhD and MD to put after the names of the gods and heroes in olden days.
  • In such a case, reciting all your many names is akin to the Badass Boast.
  • See also Honorific, Kenning, Reputation, and Title of Honor.
• You could set up your campaign as if it had many competing villains, when it actually has just one Big Bad Evil Guy known by many names to his legions of henchmen. How long will it take the PCs to figure this out?
  • Or, the opposite. They assume all the badguys work for one evil master with many names, but later discover there's at least two competing evils that can be played against each other. Trying to sort out the details ("wait, the goblins work for who, again?") may involve a lot of legwork.
• In ancient times, it was not unusual for a person to receive a new name, or add a new descriptive name to his existing one, when he undergoes a significant life experience.
  • Examples from the Bible include Abram who became Abraham; Jacob who became Israel; Saul of Tarsus who became Paul and Simon became Peter
  • Traditionally the Pope chooses a "reign name" distinct from his own name when he succeeds to the papacy.
  • In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Thorin the dwarf gained the name "Oakenshield" when he grabbed a tree branch to replace his own shield which had been destroyed in battle. PC's may gain descriptive surnames/nicknames for similar reasons.
    • In one of this troper's campaigns, a character found herself on the wrong side of the dragon the Duke was fighting. Rather than go around the dragon, she ran over it. Afterwards the Duke scolded her for "dancing on top of that dragon", which led to the Duke's men calling her "Lady Dragondancer".

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